ART. CULTURE. REVOLUTION
Milo Rau in conversation with Robert Misik
Social change and revolutions in the zeitgeist have always been accompanied by aesthetic upheavals, by a sense of beginnings in the arts and by radical utopias - or rather: they preceded them. But what can radical art still do today?
Crossing boundaries and provocations can hardly be provocative today; they often serve as entertainment in a capitalist commercial culture. Direct, radical political art is easily suspected of being agitprop. Or it simply serves to entertain an audience that believes itself to be critical.
For around two decades now, the exceptional artist Milo Rau has been opening new doors for radical, political art. His political radicalism is so explicit that he escapes the entertainment trap; in developing new, previously unknown styles, he succeeds in creating new situations in which relevant new things happen.
In conversation with Robert Misik, the theatre maker, author and filmmaker explores what art can contribute to changing the world - especially with regard to a tabula rasa in the post-corona era.
Milo Rau, 44, is probably the most innovative and interesting theatre director in Europe today. He has been the director of the Dutch Theatre Ghent since 2018, before which - and to this day - he developed gripping and often disturbing productions with his „International Institute of Political Murder“. One of his early sensations was „Hate Radio“ about the civil war in Rwanda. Productions such as the „Moscow Trials“, the „Zurich Trials“ and the „Congo Tribunal“ combine realistic documentation and theatrical staging. He triumphed at the Vienna Festival 2019 with „Orest in Mosul“. Most recently, he caused a stir with „The New Gospel“, a cinematic „docudrama“ of a very special kind. He has realised around 50 major productions to date. In 2017, he was voted „Director of the Year“ by a jury of German critics.
Moderation Robert Misik, Author and journalist